Residents in Tuxedo, and the communities surrounding Sterling Forest, standing together against the development of the Sterling Forest Resort casino.

UPDATE: The New York State Gaming Facilities Location Board voted to NOT award a license to Genting Americas' Sterling Forest Resort casino.

THANK YOU for all your action and support, including sending letters voicing your opposition to the casino. The Gaming Commission received 3,428 letters regarding the proposed Sterling Forest Resort, with over 3000 of them in opposition. Our concerns were heard, loud and clear!

Special thanks to the following for their leadership, hard work, and support:

What's Next

Tuxedo still has many challenges ahead. The Town Board, Tuxedo residents, and area businesses all have a role in securing Tuxedo's economic future. A broad and deep coalition of concerned citizens and regional and national organizations remains committed to keeping Sterling Forest State Park protected.

Suggested Opposition Statement

I am writing as a concerned citizen in vehement opposition to the Sterling Forest casino resort proposed by Genting Americas. It is the wrong project in the wrong place, chosen for the wrong reasons.

Sterling Forest State Park, which encloses the proposed resort, was set aside only 16 years ago in a historic collaboration of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the National Parks Service, the states of New York and New Jersey, and dedicated groups of citizens, at a cost of more than $100 million. As a result, we have a 22,000-acre natural resource, protecting a vital watershed and providing vitally wild habitat, only an hour's fast drive from New York City.

This fragile habitat is the wrong place to bring the Genting resort, with its 1.4 million square feet of space and its expected 6,900,000 visitors a year.

Evidence shows that the host community is conflicted at best about endorsing the project. An email poll solicited by the Tuxedo Town Supervisor on the casino question revealed that out of more than 250 respondents, an overwhelming majority of 2 to 1 oppose a Tuxedo casino. At a recent Tuxedo Town meeting where citizens were invited to speak, the number was 78% opposed (out of 24 speakers).

Tuxedo Town government endorsements aside, significant numbers of its citizens do not welcome it, do not want the traffic, the intense activity, and the social degradation associated with casino gambling. The State must respect this community's reluctance. A divided community is the wrong host for the Genting resort.

We would also point out that the Upstate New York Gaming and Economic Development Act of 2013 was intended explicitly to bring casino jobs to economically distressed areas upstate. That hardly describes the town of Tuxedo. If the project is intended to foster economic development, that is the wrong reason to choose a site in Sterling Forest State Park.

Certainly other communities in the Catskills/Hudson Valley gaming region can be found that are more suitable, more economically distressed, without an environmental treasure to protect.